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Quartier Perdu is the anticipated new collection from multi-award winning short story writer, poet, playwright and journalist, Sean O'Brien.

O’Brien is perhaps Britain’s most decorated living poet, being the only poet to have won the Forward and TS Elliot prizes three times. New collection brings together stories inspired by terror, science and the supernatural, lit with the hue of the Victorian gothic. Some stories written in direct response to the famous Literature and Philosophy Library in Newcastle, where O’Brien lives and is the Professor of Creative Writing at the university.

The evening will be hosted by Libby Tempest, who worked in Public Libraries for all her working life – and was Children’s Librarian for North Manchester for 10 years, then transferred to Manchester Central Library for a further 10 years as Senior Librarian in charge of Cultural Services (Language & Literature, Arts, Music, Fiction and the Events Programme). She is Chair of the Gaskell Society and has hosted numerous events for Manchester Literature Festival.

Book will be available for purchase with partner booksellers, Blackwell's.

Quartier Perdu

Sheltering from an air raid in an empty underground station, a young woman encounters a strangely out-of-place vessel passing along the platform...A librarian cataloguing the manuscripts of a recently deceased horror writer notices one particular box, relating to his most mystical work, has disappeared...A young academic takes up residency in the former home of an obscure, Dutch poet in order to better understand the strange rumours surrounding his demise...Sean O’Brien’s stories are all lit with the unmistakable hue of the Victorian gothic: from the rantings of a deranged psychiatric patient, to the apparition of demons swarming into a remote, rural railway station; solemn oaths are broken and need atoning for; minor transgressions are met with outlandish curses. Often we join O’Brien’s protagonists attempting to take time out from their troubles, but removing themselves from their normal lives only lets the supernatural in, and before they know it personal demons find very literal ones to conspire with.

Praise for Sean O'Brien:

‘O’Brien’s stories glint with black comedy and touches of the macabre and surreal.’ – Helen Dunmore‘Strange, creepy, often brilliant.’ – Financial Times‘The prose, winging between stateliness and the coarsest urban patois, is fluent and flawless...’ – Independent on Sunday